CHILDREN'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR:The Christmas story seen through the eyes of a donkey, first love, a boy soldier and a mysterious key all feature in ROBERT DUNBAR's best children's books of the year
Al Capone Shines My Shoes
By Gennifer Choldenko (Bloomsbury, £6.99)
Friendship with Alcatraz’s most famous inhabitant brings its rewards – and complications – for young Moose and his family.
Age: 10
A Trick of the Dark
By BR Collins (Bloomsbury, £7.99)
A teenage boy dies – or does he? – following an accident: a supernatural thriller of strong emotions and strong language.
Age: 15
Chalkline
By Jane Mitchell (Walker, £5.99)
Set in Kashmir, this powerful novel traces young Rafiq’s transformation from boy to boy soldier and its effects on his family’s life.
Age: 12
Colm the Lazarus Key
By Kieran Mark Crowley (Mercier, €8.99)
This Irish adventure story features boy cousins, allegedly cursed books and a mysterious key, wrapped together with wit and humour.
Age: 10
Eating Things on Sticks
By Anne Fine (Doubleday, £10.99)
Young Harry, a bachelor uncle and the latter’s girlfriend have the holiday from hell on a remote island: hilarious!
Age: 10
Esty’s Gold
By Mary Arrigan (Frances Lincoln, £6.99)
The distances between the Ireland of the Famine and Australia’s goldfields are skilfully bridged in a young heroine’s story of courage and determination.
Age: 10
Fever Crumb
By Philip Reeve (Scholastic, £12.99)
A London where history and fantasy coalesce sees 14-year-old Fever search for her origins and save the capital from destruction.
Age: 12
It’s a Secret!
By John Burningham (Walker, £11.99)
A cat’s nocturnal activities – and their consequences – are at the heart of this beautifully conceived picture book.
Age: four
Millie’s Marvellous Hat
By Satoshi Kitamura (Andersen, £11.99)
A little girl’s longing for an expensive hat is gratified by an invisible one: a picture book celebrating childhood imagination.
Age: four
Numbers
By Rachel Ward (The Chicken House, £6.99)
The ability to foresee the date of someone’s death brings its complications for teenager Jem and her friend Spider.
Age: 15
Revolver
By Marcus Sedgwick (Orion, £9.99)
An Arctic setting, a boy, a dead father, a menacing stranger – and a revolver: from these ingredients a totally engrossing story emerges.
Age: 12
Rowan the Strange
By Julie Hearn (Oxford, £10.99)
A 13-year-old schizophrenic undergoes electric shock therapy: his reactions to it and to his fellow patients provide an intense, thought-provoking narrative.
Age: 13
Solace of the Road
By Siobhan Dowd (David Fickling, £10.99)
Fourteen-year-old Holly Hogan travels, by road and ferry, from London to Ireland to be reunited with her mother: there are numerous revelations en route.
Age: 14
Tabby McTat
By Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler (Scholastic, £10.99)
A delightful rhyming story celebrates the adventures of a straying busker’s cat.
Age: four
Tales from Outer Suburbia
By Shaun Tan (Templar, £12.99)
Quirky anecdotes and quirky artwork combine to provide offbeat insights into humankind’s strange ways.
Age: 10
Tender Morsels
By Margo Lanagan (David Fickling, £12.99)
A mother and her daughters move between real and fantasy worlds in this multi-layered and frequently disturbing novel.
Age: 16
The Ant Colony
By Jenny Valentine (HarperCollins, £6.99)
A 17-year-old runaway boy, living in a Camden Town squat, finds friendship in an unlikely source: a well plotted, engrossing story.
Age: 13
The Ask and the Answer
By Patrick Ness (Walker, £12.99)
On the planet called New World teenagers Todd and Viola struggle valiantly with the pains of separation and loss.
Age: 14
The Bride’s Farewell
By Meg Rosoff (Penguin, £10.99)
A young Victorian woman walks away from her wedding and encounters unexpected developments on travels with her brother.
Age: 14
The Crowded Shadows
By Celine Kiernan (O’Brien, €10.99)
Wynter Moorehawk’s travels – and travails – through the darkening European forests continue in pursuit of her “rebel” friend, Prince Alberon.
Age: 13
The Death Defying Pepper Roux
By Geraldine McCaughrean (Oxford, £12.99)
Pepper, on his 14th birthday, embarks on various colourful adventures, determined to thwart the prophecy of an early death.
Age: 12
The Demon’s Lexicon
By Sarah Rees Brennan (Simon Schuster, £6.99)
Two teenage brothers, their mother and an aura of magic, necromancy and demonology provide the material for a stylishly written novel guaranteed to appeal to all fans of gothic fantasy.
Age: 13
The Lion, the Unicorn and Me
By Jeanette Winterson, illustrated by Rosalind MacCurrach (Scholastic, £12.99)
An attractively designed book relates the most famous of Christmas stories as seen through the eyes of a humble donkey.
Age: six
Then
By Morris Gleitzman (Puffin, £5.99)
Felix and Zelda escape from the train transporting them to a concentration camp: a struggle for survival in the face of evil and cruelty ensues.
Age: 10
The Nutcracker
By Simon Stewart, illustrated by PJ Lynch (whowhatwherewhenwhy: W5, £12.99)
A seasonal outing for Hoffman’s well known story comes with a complementary mix of appealing narrative and attractive characterisation and settings.
Age: six
There
By Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick (Roaring Books Press, $17.95)
A little girl speculates on what is entailed in moving between the “here” of her present and the “there” of her imaginings.
Age: four
What I Saw and How I Lied
By Judy Blundell (Scholastic, £6.99)
America, 1947: time for 15-year-old Evie to make shattering discoveries about her family’s secrets – and to experience the pangs of first love.
Age: 14
Wheels of War
By Sally Prue (Oxford, £5.99)
Two young men, caught up in the consequences of civil war, learn to reconsider their notions of heroes and heroism.
Age: 12
The White Horse Trick
By Kate Thompson (Bodley Head, £10.99)
Late 21st century Ireland, scarred by climatic change and environmental damage, contrasts tellingly with the mythical world of Tir na nÓg.
Age: 13
The Wisdom of Dead Men
By Oisín McGann (Corgi, £6.99)
Further shenanigans from the Wildensterns of Co Wicklow – “no ordinary family” – provide a compelling blend of fantasy and social history.
Age: 13
Robert Dunbar is a commentator on children's books and a contributor to the recently published 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up,edited by Julia Eccleshare (Octopus Books)
